Mid-South Grizzlies v. National Football League

Mid-South Grizzlies v. NFL
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Argued	September 13, 1983
Decided	November 4, 1983
Citation(s)	720 F.2d 772; 1983-2 Trade Cases 65,695
Case history
Prior history	550 F.Supp. 558 (1982)
Subsequent history	Rehearing denied, December 5, 1983
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting	Collins J. Seitz, John Joseph Gibbons, Max Rosenn
Case opinions
Majority	Gibbons, joined by a unanimous court
Laws applied
Sherman Antitrust Act

Mid-South Grizzlies v. NFL, 720 F.2d 772 (3d Cir. 1983),^[1] was a lawsuit filed by John F. Bassett, the owner of the World Football League's Memphis Grizzlies against the National Football League claiming that the NFL violated the antitrust laws by refusing to admit his club to their league.

The court found that the NFL had not acquired or maintained its monopoly power unlawfully and that the refusal to expand to Memphis did not contribute to its maintenance. It further elaborated that such refusal was actually procompetitive because it left the Memphis area open to rival leagues.^[2] By the time the lawsuit had settled, Bassett had gone on to found the Tampa Bay Bandits of the United States Football League, while Memphis received the Memphis Showboats of the same league. As such, the case effectively became moot. (Incidentally, the USFL would go on to file a much more famous antitrust suit against the NFL a few years later, which while successfully decided against the NFL, provided only a cursory monetary award to the USFL; ironically, Bassett was an outspoken opponent of that lawsuit.)

See also

• American Needle, Inc. v. National Football League
• Radovich v. National Football League

References

External links

• Text of Mid-South Grizzlies v. NFL, 720 F.2d 772 (3d Cir. 1983) is available from: CourtListener  Justia  OpenJurist  Google Scholar 

This page was last edited on 13 September 2023, at 02:42